Koh Phangan Island High End Tourism attracts more thieves & burglars

Koh Phangan Island officials recently reported a burglary in a vacation home on Baan Tai beach next to Garden Lodge and Rung Arun Resort.

The burglary took place Saturday 15th December 2007 and was discovered by the vacation home owners after coming back from their evening dinner in closely located Thongsala town.

“We left our home around 20.00 o’clock for dinner in Thongsala. Once we came back about 23.30 nothing looked suspicious in the first place. But after a while we discovered that our sleeping room door was locked from the inside. Once we opened the door the sleeping room was totally upside down and the window was widely open”, the holiday home owner explained.

Amongst the stolen things was 1 passport, 2 airline tickets, 600 Euro in cash, device for charging a digital camera and a few music CD’s.

Next morning the vacation home owners went to the local police station to issue an official police report by local authorities.

“We were quite surprised about the local police department and the way of doing things there. We told the police officer what had happened and they then friendly asked us what we actually want from them. After paying a fee of 100 Thai Baht the local police department finally issued us an official report about the burglary which we needed for the embassy and the airline.”, the vacation home owner added.

The vacation home owner further explained, “We were also quite surprised that the Phangan police department didn’t even bother to have a look at our home. We had finger prints on the walls and other possible evidence but it seemed that the local police officers didn’t have any interest at all in our burglary case!”.

Over the last couple of weeks a few more burglary incidents have been reported by local island authorities. A group of organized thieves and burglars was finally arrested by the Phangan police department two months ago during the Full Moon Party at Hadrin beach.

The organized crime gang consisted of foreign tourists specialized in burglaries at high end bungalow resorts around Hadrin Beach during the Full Moon night. Amongst the stolen items were mostly high tech devices like laptops, digital cameras, mobile phones and also cash and credit cards.

With the steady rise of high end tourism on Koh Phangan Island more and more organized criminals also get attracted by this last paradise in the south of Thailand.

“We never used to lock our doors and windows. But it looks like that these times are finally over. From now on we keep our doors locked tightly”, the vacation home owner concluded.